Gem |
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What’s the best thing Gem do? Well that would be playing fiery, passionate rock music.
They burst onto the Dutch scene last summer after being thrown in at the deep end supporting The Libertines, who were of course fronting a massive Brit-rock offensive at the time. Only they famously imploded that night in Amsterdam, and have never been the same since. On the other hand, Gem stood up proudly, got noticed, and haven’t really slowed down since, so less than a year later, they’re taking their debut album, Tell Me What’s New to the world.
Is it worthy of the attention? Well Gem seem immensely confident in themselves. There’s a definite rock swagger to their sound that you’d normally connect to bands like the Rolling Stones or even Oasis. It’s the type of overbearing bravado that can either convince an audience you’re special or write you off as a pretentious nobody. That’s the risk to this game, and if you choose to play then you have to take the consequences.
But it always helps to have a strong rock album behind you, and these Utrecht lads have at least succeeded in this part. The pace of their music is normally blazing ahead, with dirty guitars and strong rhythmic bass playing sitting under the raw vocals of Maurits Westerik. While not the most controlled singer, his wild calls carry an emotive message that matches the energy of the music. It’s particularly effective on tracks like ‘Summertime’ and ‘The Opposite’ which attack manically, making them the most instantly accessible on the record. Then a song like ‘Eyes Wide Open’ comes across as part “quirky British rock” and another part “early-Daryll-Ann with harsher vocals”, but it demonstrates that they can play in more than one gear.
The crux of the matter is, Tell Me What’s New meets its aims comfortably, and if it was released by an American or English band right now, there’s a good chance that people would pick up on it pretty fast. It fits the time and mood of a music scene. What will be interesting is to see if the rest of the world can respond equally positive to a Dutch rock act because the band has ambition and the national backing. Beyond that it’s going to be a question of luck.
Steven McCarron
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